Assisted Suicides: Illegal

Did you know that, in most countries, if you want to die, you can't get help? If you're a cripple, or under constant care, or simply can't do it on your own, you're doomed to wait until you finally die, regardless of how much you suffer? Do you know why?

Fuck you, that's why. Your emotional state is irrelevant to the powers-that-be-- We only care that we don't kill you. Not so much that you live or die, that'd be way too personal. No, we just don't want to be the ones killing you. Why? Again, fuck you, that's why.

Well, fine, you say. You find a place where the powers-that-be don't want you to suffer, where you can die in peace, with dignity. Except, you need to be terminally ill. And old. Oh, no, we fully realise that everyone will die, but we won't speed it up unless you're.. guaranteed to? Yeah, it's not really rational.

But, hey, if you're young, you might change your mind, right? I mean, it's not like millions of people-- And not counting in the so-called 3rd world-- live their entire lives in misery, poverty and famine, right? That there are people who've no hope of their lives improving, that they're doing shit all other than staying alive.

But, hey, I'm sure that homeless man down the street, who sleeps with newspapers to protect himself from the cold, who went to the streets in his 20s, who has no education or marketable skills, who can't wait until his death, will just LOVE to hear that the powers-that-be won't help him live, won't even help him have a comfortable death.

The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right... The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.